The City of Dominos
by Thera Lance
Summary: Unbeknownst to its denizens, a dark god walks the streets of Domino. After millennia, monsters once again crawl from his Shadows as he settles back into the world that has forgotten him. Meanwhile, Seto Kaiba finds himself fighting both for control of a military company that wants to twist his goals into nightmares and against the impossibilities of Shadow Magic. Canon DivergenceAU


_This is the end of a story told a thousand times before. A common tale etched in black and white and witnessed by those unlucky few caught up in its deathless, death-filled cycle. _

_Cursed gold finds its way into a child's hands and molds the world around him as it once did five thousand years ago. At the words of a demon, the spirit melts away from the flesh only to awaken in a hardened, stiff shell, silently screaming to a world that will not listen._

* * *

The apartment is empty and cold; its walls the worn white of bones left out too long on the wind-swept plain. As he walks through the windowless hallway, Bakura glares at the tasteless design. He despises moving into such places. They have always made him look like a washed out ghost in his own home; and while he may have the pallor of one, he much prefers to stand out amongst his surroundings rather than fade into them.

The cardboard box in his arms thumps against the floor as he sets it down in the smaller of the two bedrooms. It won't be long before the walls are painted into more medium colors; but, for now, he has more important things to attend to.

There is a knife. Wrapped in cloth and bubble wrap somewhere amongst the boxes in the hallway outside his front door, it could easily part the packaging tape with its sharp edge. Bakura lacks the patience to search for it though, instead opting to catch the edge of the tape with his fingernails. The tearing scratches away at the silence of the room, yet the white walls still loom above him as he kneels in front of the box.

It isn't long before the tape curls in loops upon the floor, and it takes an even shorter time before Bakura unwraps a part of the game board from its bubble wrap. His fingers brush softly against the meadow greens of its surface as he sets it down and starts on the next piece. Within minutes, parts of a landscape lay spread out before him. Plastic trees tops, pierced with real wood twigs for trunks, sit in curved little rows around a dismantled castle painted in dark greys and blacks.

Soon, he reaches the last item. A small black case guarded by a golden keyhole. He pulls the case out slowly and sets it upon the ground as softly as a parent laying a child to bed. From the pocket of his jeans appears a silver key for its golden gate. With a twist and a click, it opens.

Encased within, the most important pieces of his game look up at him. Several figurines, cushioned by pale blue foam, draw all of his attention away from the white room. Below him lies irreplaceable treasures; for, while the other components of this game can easily be bought or hand-carved again, the creatures beneath him are one-time creations, carved with an attention and affection that can never be replicated.

One of the figurines, a lone eyeball surrounded by purple tentacles, blinks against the harsh glare of the overhead light. Bakura grins as a second one, a large, bipedal bat creature reaches out one clawed hand and climbs its way over the edges of the black case. Once over the edge, it outstretches its leathery wings, so that the other shifting, mumbling monsters are shaded from the light.

The bat-creature slowly looks up to Bakura. Its purple, plastic eyes take only a moment to regain the clarity that was lost in slumber. Its voice grinds like gravel as it speaks.

"Hello, Master."

* * *

**AN: For those of you who have read either of my other Yugioh stories, _The Eye of Loss_ or _The Ghost_, this is a sort of companion piece to the two of them. While technically it qualifies as a prequel from a chronological point of view, I am trying to write this story in a way that one could start from any of the three stories and still enjoy overall tale. Although, as a fair warning, the _Ghost_ is definitely a beginner's work that I'm currently reworking to match the quality of the other two tales.**


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